No contract decisions as yet says Northants chief Smith

Northamptonshire are in no rush to make any decisions regarding player contracts.
David Sales is one of a number of Northants players who are out of contract this yearDavid Sales is one of a number of Northants players who are out of contract this year
David Sales is one of a number of Northants players who are out of contract this year

That is according to chief executive David Smith who, along with the club’s cricketing hierarchy, will have to decide on the futures of a number of players in the next few weeks.

September is traditionally the time when things start to come out in the wash, and Smith thinks that the end of the month will be when the hiring and firing takes place.

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A number of players - David Sales, Luke Evans, Con de Lange, Christian Davis, James Kettleborough, Sam Sweeney and Rob Keogh - are out of contract this year and Smith says that there are a number of factors that will have to be considered before new deals are offered or otherwise.

He said: “There’s been no movement as of of yet.

“The chances are that we will wait until the end of the season to see what money we’ve got and how we can use it.

“Lee (Daggett) is obviously going so that frees up some capital, and Trent won’t be coming back so there is some increase in the budget for the squad, but we’re going to have to wait and see how things pan out.

“Some of the younger lads are out of contract and it’s a fact that we can’t have them all.

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“We want to keep our best players so there will be extra wage demands there, and it all has to go into the pot.

“It’s well known that we will need to recruit in certain areas and that could affect who stays or goes.”

Keogh has certainly done his chances of winning a new contract no harm, as he today scored his main first-class century in the LV= Championship Division Two clash at Hampshire.